Thursday, October 25, 2012

A school for Etiquette

I
used to stay in the college hostel during the years, when I was
studying engineering. We used to have two large dining halls or
messes for having our meals, which were arranged by the hostel. In
each of these dining halls , there were large dining tables
constructed in cement concrete with polished mosaic tiles fixed as
table tops. On each of these tables, 15 to 20 persons could have
their meals easily. All the eatables were usually kept at the middle
of the dining tables in large sized polished china bowls. It was
expected that every diner would serve himself the food items he
wanted to consume from these bowls.

In
our college, we used to get students from almost all states of India,
which meant that they came from totally different kinds of ethnic,
social and cultural groups of varying backgrounds. Many of the new
entrants did not have even an iota of an idea about the table
manners or the etiquette that were needed. When eating in a group of
15 or 20 people, many of the new entrants would serve themselves huge
quantities or heaps of foodstuff without bothering about the other
people sitting around them. Some made smacking, chomping or crunching
sounds while eating. Some burped after their meals loudly while some
others sprayed bits of chewed food all around them while munching
with their mouths open. The other students, sitting at the same
table, would feel thoroughly disgusted with this kind of behaviour
and would have to watch helplessly. Usually, the senior students had
the responsibility of setting things right, by instructing the
errant diners to do things in a proper and right way. I must admit
that in those few years, after watching so many students with an
unimaginable array of bad table manners, my mind was completely
imbibed with the importance of the need to have and follow good table
manners, which I can never forget for rest of my life.

I
can recollect another such incidence, when I was working in a big
sized corporation. On this occasion, I was part of an interviewing
panel consisting of about 8 or 10 people and we were interviewing
candidates for post of an engineer. Few of us were in the panel as
experts in technical fields. Besides the technical people, there were
people from human resources department and sales. Our general manager
was the head of the interviewing panel.

One
of the candidate, whom we had interviewed, was really a top class
expert in his field and he had rich experience of many years.
However, others on the interviewing panel were not much for him. It was felt that the
candidate had very rough and crude manners and his capability of
communication with other people was suspect. After much discussion we
left the decision with our general manager. He decided against this
particular candidate as he was not sure about the fitness of this
person for the post. His thinking was that outsiders may not form
favourable opinion about this person because of his rough manners and
effectively company image might suffer. So finally it was decided to
select the next candidate with lesser technical expertise and
experience.

In
whatever field or area we work, we would be always coming in contact
with some or other people during working hours. There would be very
few such jobs on this planet, where we do not have to communicate at
all with any one else. This makes it almost mandatory for anyone to
have good communication skills and good manners . In the newly
developed field of Information technology, communication skills and
good manners are even more important requirements for an individual.
In India more than 2 Million people are employed in this field and
this sector is looking for more and more suitable people. The human
resources departments of these IT companies say that they have no
problems with the technical capabilities and capacities of the
candidate they interview. According to them, most Indians lack basic
good manners and communication skills.

I
came across an interesting teaching course started by " Raman
International Institute of Information Technology" from Mysore
city in the state of Karnataka, for the engineering graduates, who
wish to join IT industry.

If
we find out what the lecturers tell to the students attending this
course, we probably would never believe it. But the fact remains that
these students are so ignorant about the social behaviour that they
are needed to be told about even the most basic things. I am giving
few examples here.

“If
you find someone crying, leave that person alone. Do not try to find
out the reason or console that person.”

“ If
you observe white or gray hair on someone's head, do not point that
out.”

“ Indian
standard time is not Indian stretchable time. Give importance to
someone else's time”

Mrs,
Chhaya Shrivastava is a lecturer in this course. Some of the things
she teaches her students include day to day practical difficulties
like; How to write professional e-mails without using slang words? Or
how to speak with your seniors or superiors? In addition the students
are also briefed about Etiquette and protocols followed in offices,
communication skills and conversational skills. She says that since
these people most of their working time sitting in front of a
computer, they do not understand how to behave with colleagues? Or
How to have proper conversations? Most of the time, the tone in which
they speak, their body language, are not proper. If such employees
are sent abroad, particularly to advanced countries, they find it
very tough to adjust with the work environment there.

The
students who graduate from Indian Institute of Technology's normally
do not face these difficulties, as living in hostels and exposure to
pan India studentship make them fairly well conversant with the
required skills. These difficulties are mainly faced by students, who
graduate from small or less known institutions from smaller towns.
Besides, family background of the students also plays a major role in
this.

To
discuss projects and convince on phone, clients located 10000 miles
away, why they should accept your offer, has become a common place
requirement for an engineer working in Indian IT industry today. This
requirement means that for an Indian IT engineer, to have good basic
conversational skill and acquire tact of convincing others about his
own arguments, has become imperative.

Need
is being felt now for such institutions like this institution from
Mysore, that can polish up ordinary boys and girls passing out from
regular schools and colleges to make them trained for a job in IT
industry. It is however important to note that these institutions are
not substitutions for the regular schools. They are rather
supplementary to regular school as they provide kind of education
that can not be obtained in regular schools.